Minister drags Common Fund Boss before Akufo Addo

A seeming frosty relationship between the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Daniel Kwaku Botwe and the Administrator of Districts Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Irene Naa Torshie Addo-Lartey has landed on the desk of the President.

The move follows recurring disagreements between the two top government appointees over the disbursement of the Common Fund resulting in the sector minister reporting the Administrator to the President.

This is in furtherance to a series of letter exchanges between the Common Fund Boss and the Lawmaker for Okere over what the Minister termed discretionary disbursement of the fund.

One of such letter dated May 4, 2023, and signed by the sector minister, reads in part, “The attention of the Ministry has been drawn to the discretionary allocation of funds for specific Projects/activities for District Assemblies Common fund

“For instance, I have attached to the copy a letter addressed to the Western North Regional Minister allocating a total sum of GHC1 Million to the Member of Parliament for Bia East Constituency.”

In the attached letter, a reference was made in paragraph 2 to indicate that “we write to inform you that approval has been given for contract sum not exceeding GHC 1 million. Since the Ministry has never been consulted and involved in such approval, could you clarify the approving authority and process of approval”

It was closely followed by a letter dated July 10, 2023, to the President arguing that “the trigger for the utilization of the allocations stated above can and should only be done by the Minister for Local Government and Decentralization and Rural Development, on behalf of Government to ensure consistency with the government’s aspiration for development of the MMDAs”